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re: It's the extremists who're doing the bombing
Odin — (archived)

Were I a Muslim, I'd be more pissed at those extremists who've committing those acts in the name of my religion than at people who're getting upset at Moslems.

If the "people who're getting upset at Moslems" killed or maimed some of your innocent family members, would the focus of your anger change?

During the Vietnam war, U.S. soldiers going in-country were given little cards explaining the importance of winning "hearts and minds," but the realities of war changed that to (as the Marines said), "get them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow."

That only works long-term if you can control what subsequent generations are taught, as in Germany and Japan after WWII. In Vietnam, our failure to achieve and maintain control caused a potentially bad situation (a Socialist popular enough to win a national election) to deteriorate
into disaster.

Part of that failure was that, inexplicably, the Vietnamese people didn't like being moved to barbed wire-enclosed concentration camps, their homes burned and food stocks destroyed. They didn't like being bombed and strafed and napalmed and poisoned. They didn't like America's puppet ruler Diem torturing and imprisoning and killing their family members. Many who hadn't actively supported the Viet Minh at the beginning became Viet Minh themselves or were more willing to help them.

One of the lessons of Vietnam is that victimizing innocents during a guerilla war is counterproductive. "Getting upset at Moslems" tends to lead to the victimization of innocents.

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